Continuity and Transformation Among the Aged: A Study in the Anthropology of Time [and Comments]

Properties of social time developed among members of a London day-care centre for the aged at two points of chronological time are compared. In the first study, members' temporal universe was found to be anchored in a change arresting conception of reality constructed and sustained by an isolated, egalitarian, present-bound social structure. The restudy, conducted seven years later, revealed that although the centre was no longer an isolated, egalitarian society, veteran members still adhered to temporal principles of the former structure. Thus the first period could be regarded as a formative phase for a mode of structured continuity with enduring elements of liminality. It is therefore suggested that time is not a mere reflection of social processes but their generator and hence a subject of anthropological investigation in its own right.